DALTON, Mass. — The Fire District held its first community meeting on Thursday, starting the process in navigating the next steps in addressing problems the district is facing. 

 

The district's new Fire Chief Christian Tobin, established the monthly meeting to get different perspectives from residents to develop solutions to the town's problems and work together to solve them. 

 

During the meeting each attendee introduced themselves, providing background on their expertise. 

 

The nine residents had diverse backgrounds and expertise in finance, environmental, traffic and fire safety, local government, and more. 

 

Attendees included Finance Committee and Traffic Commissioner William Drosehn, Finance Committee clerk Karen Schmidt, Green Committee member Todd Logan, Prudential Committee member Daniel Filiault, former Select Board member William "Bill" Chabot, Water Commissioner Camillus Cachat, Assistant Fire Chief Chris Cachat, retired fire chief Rich Kardasen, and Dalton Democratic Committee Chair Michele Marantz. 

 

Tobin also mentioned that he had received more comments from other residents who could not attend on Thursday but expressed an interest in attending future meetings. 

 

During the meeting, attendees touched on problems the district is facing, including funding, building improvements to make the firehouse Americans with Disabilities Act accessible, building reorganization to optimize space utilization, and making the most of and expanding on tax dollars and emergency medical services fees. 

 

Tobin said what worries him is what he is not seeing and that's why he's looking for different perspectives. For example, an engineer will see the firehouse a lot differently than he would, he said.

 

"I want the debate. I already know what I know. I love to argue. I want to have a good debate on what the right path is," he said 

 

The more discussion that takes place the more thing that will come to light, he said, emphasizing the need for collaboration and communication between the town and the Fire District. 

 

"I'm hoping that the other communities see what Dalton's doing and see that we're getting together as a community to help address these things" and that it creates a ripple effect across other areas, Tobin said. 

 

He said he has good relationships with the police chief and town manager and that there have been plenty of times when other fire departments and rescues have found creative solutions to emergencies by utilizing unexpected equipment from town departments, such as the Department of Public Works, Tobin said.

 

"You never know what you're going to need and who you're going to need it from."

 

The chief said they could find cost-effective solutions by bridging the gap between the two governing bodies and examining the resources.

 

One of the biggest priorities is the EMS service, as 80 percent of emergency calls are medical, Tobin said. 

 

The idea that ambulance services make money is a misnomer, as the cost is more than what the ambulance gets back from insurance, he said. "It makes user fees because it's recouping [money] from the insurance. It recoups money."

 

One topic for future meetings is how to make the ambulance service an established part of the Fire Department in a cost-effective way. 

 

"I find that having the private ambulance service coming to rescue me for profit, I kind of had a little bit of a problem with that and that's kind of why I've always kind of come from, especially with firefighting and EMS, is it's important to keep the public entity as a public entity," Drosehn said. 

 

Private ambulances transport patients from one hospital or facility to another. Tobin said one idea worth considering is investing in a second unit that is available for interfacility transports when not on call. This would supplement user fees and offset expenses. 

 

Another side to emergency services is prevention and he noted that the district lacks coordination with the local schools.

 

"The best fire is one you don't read about. The best thing you can do is make sure people are safe. That's why it's called prevention," the fire chief said. 

 

The department can't even get into the schools until the police show up, Tobin said.

 

Filiault recommended that they have a presentation on the history of the Fire Department and EMS and its current challenges so they can figure out solutions. 

 

With the extensive number of topics and ideas mentioned, Logan said he would work with Tobin to create a visual aid to help organize the thoughts. Marantz also recommended that they focus on and talk about one topic every month.